Investigating the Effect of Depressive Rumination on Working Memory Capacity in Non-Clinical Samples
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Chow, Chia-Chi
Abstract
Introduction：Literature review shows that depressive rumination sustains depressed mood. However, recent studies have suggested of two separated subcomponents of depressive rumination, i.e., brooding and reflection, representing thealadaptive and adaptive cognitive aspects of depressive rumination, respectively. From another point of view, some researchers proposed that there were cognitive mechanisms accounting for the persistence of rumination process, i.e., the tendency to ruminate is the results of individual’s cognitive impairments or rumination itself occupies one’s cognitive resources. Both hypotheses need to be further examined. Purpose：Thus, the present thesis aimed to empirically investigate the relationship among rumination tendency, rumination process and working memory capacity. Method：Study 1 examined the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Rumination Response Scale-Short Form (CRRS-SF). It validated a two-factor model of depressive rumination by using a sample of 220 undergraduate students. Study 2 developed the Chinese version of operation span task, and resulted in two parallel sets of items equivalent in difficulties for evaluating subjects’ working memory capacity pre- and post- manipulation in the next study. Study 3 consists of two experiments. Experiment 1 was designed to examine whether the rumination process occupied cognitive resources in 70 undergraduate students. In experiment 2, another 58 students were instructed to induce sad mood before manipulation in order to further investigate the impact of depressive rumination on cognitive function. Results：All in all, the results indicate that: (1) The CRRS-SF yielded adequate psychometric properties. Moreover, scores on the brooding subscale, rather than reflection subscale, wereignificantly positively correlated with depressive symptoms. The results supported a satisfactory two-factor construct of depressive rumination. (2) Rumination process alone, in the absence of depressed mood, was not able to elicit participants’negative emotions or impair their cognitive function. (3）Normal subjects with sad mood induction did not show deleterious effects on mood or executive function afteruminating. Notably, participants with higher scores on reflection subscale showed greater working memory capacity than participants with lower scores after remediation from sad mood states. Discussion：Based on the findings, the structure aspects such as the valence of thought contents and subjects’ characteristic were discussed to elucidate the appropriateness of applying the theory of rumination in non-clinical samples. Possible application and future directions were also addressed.
Subjects
Depressive Rumination
Response Style Theory
Working Memory Capacity
Operation Span Task
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